Team Liquid has completed its 2021 roster with former Astralis top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris and former FlyQuest jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen.
Team Liquid just added its two final pieces to the 2021 roster. Alphari joins after a disappointing year with Origen, which is now known as Astralis. Santorin parted ways with FlyQuest after a bittersweet appearance at the 2020 World Championship, where he and his team upset Top Esports but failed to advance to the playoffs. These reinforcements comes at a critical time, as Liquid is looking to go back to top and earn another LCS title.
“It was a pretty easy decision for me to go to Team Liquid. They have the players I’d love to work with, they have a great infrastructure, great ownership. I’ve always seen Team Liquid as a great organization and I’m happy to be working under them,” said Santorin on the announcement.
Santorin admitted that there are a lot of pressure that comes with the job, but he’s ready to take on the challenge and go to Worlds in 2021.
We’re welcoming @Santorin to the jungle for 2021.
We’re excited to have Lucas on the team and can’t wait for the LCS season to start. #TLWIN
▶️ https://t.co/Drd88TNJ0q pic.twitter.com/X7i8PsxSGe
— Team Liquid LoL (@TeamLiquidLoL) November 20, 2020
“NA’s performance overall as a region is kind of always overblown as being really terrible. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not good. For example, this Worlds TSM really let the region down. G2 in Europe makes the region look really strong, whereas there’s actually just G2 being better than the rest,” said Alphari when asked about NA as a region.
Are Alphari and Santorin the solution for Team Liquid?
Every offseason, Team Liquid goes for roster upgrades and 2020 wasn’t the exception. Alphari is regarded as the second-best top laner in Europe at the moment and Santorin shined in 2020 with FlyQuest. The questions remain whether or not these signings will be enough for Liquid to get another title.
In his interview, Alphari said that he’s hoping to become a strong top-jungle duo with Santorin. The jungler highlighted how much his early game has improved and how he’s a great enabler for his teammates. Each player brings something necessary to the table and now it’s in the hands of the other players to get the job done.
